


We All Break Down, but Never at the Right Moments.

by theatergirl06



Series: We Save Each Other Over and Over [1]
Category: Six - Marlow/Moss
Genre: ENJOY:):):):):):):), F/F, I had to put some evil people in this universe, Katherine and Anna are sweet emotionally damaged girlfriends, Katherine goes by Katherine and Kitty because her mood changes sometimes, and the executioners are back, katanna
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-28
Updated: 2020-03-29
Packaged: 2021-02-28 21:27:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 2
Words: 8,037
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23353924
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/theatergirl06/pseuds/theatergirl06
Summary: A car accident has left two girlfriends full of guilt and emotional distress. But only one of them is willing to acknowledge it.
Relationships: Anne of Cleves/Katherine Howard
Series: We Save Each Other Over and Over [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1723069
Comments: 4
Kudos: 67





	1. Don't Hide it from Me.

_11PM on Thursday: Katherine_

Katherine Howard wanted to kick herself. Then she wanted to punch a wall. After that, she wanted to kick herself again. She'd been so utterly _stupid_. All of the other queens kept saying that it wasn't her fault, that she'd tried her hardest, done everything she could, and she knew that, but it didn't make her guilt go away. She knew Anna felt the guilt, too, though her girlfriend was so worried about her that she wasn't really thinking of anything else, although Katherine wasn't sure why. Though she was prone to panic attacks and emotional outbursts, at the moment, she actually felt fine. She felt guilt inside of her, and could feel the _potential_ for a panic attack, but she'd felt far worse, and knew she wasn't in any sort of danger at all. Right?

Kitty sighed as she plopped down onto her bed, looking for a book she could read to distract herself. She knew repressing her feelings was a terrible idea, but she was experienced enough in dealing with emotions that she knew by now that distraction could be a good thing, in moderation. And temporary distraction with fluffy romance novels was exactly what she intended to do. 

Suddenly, Kitty felt incredibly short of breath. She was on the floor and gasping, and yet despite the breathing troubles, her mind felt fine. She recognized the shortness of breath and the tightness in her neck that came with it. They were some of her warning signs before she had big panic attacks.

Katherine groaned. She _really_ didn't want to have a panic attack, though she never did, to be fair. Right now, she wanted to see Anne. 

All of a sudden, Anne's face swam all too clearly into her mind's eye. Staggering into the apartment late at night, drunk and wild, way drunker than usual, even for her. Katherine remembered herself and Anna trying to stop her from getting into the car with all of their might. She remembered Anne tricking them, even in her drunk state, and both of them ending up locked in a closet.

She remembered the call from the hospital. 

As much as Katherine knew that Anne would be fine, that it was confirmed, that there was no question about it, that didn't stop the guilt from coming into her mind. If only she'd tried harder, been smarter, or just plain stronger. 

It wasn't the first time those exact thoughts had pierced her brain. 

_Would_ someone like Henry Mannox or Francis Dereham have done what they'd done to her if she'd been smarter? Stronger? She wasn't sure.

 _Toxic thoughts_ , she told herself. _There's no point in them._ It was true, there was no point. She'd learned a lot about emotional control since coming back to life, and now it was time to put those skills to use. So, as best as she could, she took some deep breaths, acknowledged her guilt and fear, told herself why she didn't need to feel guilty or scared, and let all those thoughts sit on the periphery of her brain. She would deal with them for a while, and eventually, she wouldn't have to anymore. It was the best thing she could do.

For now, she focused on joining the other queens downstairs. As usual, Kitty tried to read the other queens' emotions as she entered the room. It was a skill she'd learned long ago as a method of self defense, but which she now found very useful in trying to help her family. She started with the "strict mom" as they (mainly Anne) called her, Catherine of Aragon. She had the power and authority to command their entire household, a power she was using right now as she ordered the other queens to do various tasks for Anne. Katherine could tell her bossiness was fueled by hot spikes of anger, but the anger was flimsy, and clearly covering up mountains of sadness and worry. Mostly worry. 

On the opposite side of the room and the emotional spectrum was the "soft mom," Jane Seymour. Unlike Catherine, Jane was much more sad than worried, and was making absolutely no attempt to hide it. She was bawling and being comforted by Cathy, who, Kitty noticed, was pretty much equally worried about both Anne and Jane.

Kitty switched her focus from analyzing the others' feelings to monitoring her own, just to be safe, as she slipped in as quietly as she could. She needed something to do, and she absolutely didn't want to help Catherine and Anna sort hospital papers, mostly because she didn't want to talk to her worried girlfriend. She could help Jane, who was crying slightly less now, with baking cookies, but she decided to help Cathy with her care package instead. At 25, the last queen was only 4 years older than Katherine, but she treated her as an equal. She also never fussed over Kitty's feelings, which she appreciated, especially now. 

Since Cathy was fiddling with fonts on a get-well card, Kitty began to work on the basket itself, weaving pretty green ribbons around the handle, and covering it in small white blossoms and mint leaves.

"That's pretty," said Cathy, snapping the youngest queen out of her thoughts. "I think Anne will really love it."

"I hope so," said Kitty. "I know she'd make something wonderful if it were me."

Kitty felt the shortness of breath come again, but she did her best to acknowledge it and let it sit in her brain, as she had done before. She could only hope it would work.

After about an hour of working in their peaceful lull, Catherine suddenly stood up, completely disrupting the peace as well as knocking over a chair. "All right," she said, her voice using all its grace and authority, "this is absolutely idiotic. Sitting around here and moping will do us no good. We're having a feelings circle. Now."

Katherine groaned. Feelings circles had been introduced to the family by Jane, but they had been almost unanimously hated, by everyone other than Catherine, and for good reason. It was like group therapy, but since no one in the family was a licensed professional, nor did any of them ever feel _obligated_ to share their feelings, the circles never got them anywhere, other than making them all feel incredibly awkward.

Anna yawned. "It's one in the morning!'

"Don't care."

"We're all exhausted!"

"So?"

Anna sighed in defeat and sat down. So did everyone else. 

None of them noticed the odd movements outside their window.

_1AM on Friday: Anna_

Anna of Cleves couldn't stop yawning. She was as worried about Anne as the rest of them, but the truth was that she'd rather sleep than talk about her feelings any day. Most importantly, she was positively exhausted. Anna was definitely not good at reading other people's emotions (including her own). That was Kitty's department, but even Anna could tell that the other queens were exhausted, too.

As she sat down, her eyes instinctively slid over to Kitty. The girl had been absolutely crushed by Anne's accident, both with worry and guilt. Anna understood that guilt, even felt a bit of it herself, but she knew that Kitty could be emotionally fragile, and was determined to do whatever it took to protect her. For the moment, however, Katherine seemed fine, giggling and whispering with Cathy, so Anna allowed herself to doze off for a bit. She was just _so_ tired, and she felt a bit hot, too.

Just for a minute...

The next thing Anna knew, she was being shaken awake.

"Mmph, what the hölle is going on?"

"It's 11AM. We all fell asleep."

"Oh. Why do we have to stop?"

"We're visiting Anne now. The people at the hospital said we could."

"Is anyone staying home? I'm _really_ tired, and I'm sure she doesn't want us all at once anyway."

"Are you sure that's really why you don't want to go?"

"What do you mean?"

"Well, Kitty isn't going either, but she said it's because she still feels guilty, and she isn't quite ready yet."

"That's not it. I'm just tired."

"We'll be gone for a while. You might have to cook."

"Fine."

"All right, love, if you're sure. We're leaving now."

"Bye, Jane."

"Bye, loves!"

The front door slammed shut, leaving two very awkward girlfriends in the apartment alone.

_11AM on Friday: Katherine_

The second the door closed, Anna slumped back into her chair and closed her eyes. But the two queens had shared a room many times, and Katherine could tell the German queen wasn't sleeping. The youngest queen wasn't one to make assumptions, but if she had to guess, she would've said that Anna was pretending to asleep to avoid talking to Katherine and facing her guilt. Katherine sighed. She loved her girlfriend wholeheartedly, but there were times when she could _see_ Anna's pain, but Anna refused to even acknowledge it. Katherine wanted to help, but she knew there was no way she'd be able to.

So instead, she made herself a sandwich and some popcorn, plopped herself in front of the tv, and put on _Glee_. She didn't know how long she sat there, but at some point, she felt Anna's weight on the couch next to her. She wrapped her arms around her girlfriend and leaned her head on her shoulder. 

"How are you feeling, love?"

"Mein Schatz, what do you mean?" It was an obvious way of deflecting the real question, and this time, Katherine refused to ignore it. 

"You know exactly what I mean, Anna. I'm not the only one feeling guilty. I'm not going to let you repress forever and pretend you don't deserve to feel pain! You can talk to me. Please." 

For a split second, as Katherine grabbed Anna's wrists and looked into her eyes, she saw a tiny crack in the fourth queen's facade that she'd spent two lives perfecting, but as quickly as the crack appeared, it was gone, replaced by Anna's calm, confused expression.

"I really don't know what you mean. It's sweet of you to worry and all, but I'm completely fine." With that, Anna turned back to the television, her expression so blank it was abundantly clear it was an act, even though Anna couldn't see it herself. Katherine sighed, and went to order dinner. As she hung up the phone, she noticed a message from Jane.

"Hello, loves! There's a lot of traffic out on the roads today, and Cathy really wanted to stay with Anne, so that's what we're going to do. Hope you're both okay with that, but if you need anything, of course, call us!" Katherine smiled at Jane's usual sweetness, and sent a quick text reminding her mum to give their love to Anne. But as she put the phone down for a second time, she began to worry.

Would she and Anna really be okay at home alone? The two would normally leap at the chance and celebrate with pillow fights, ice cream sundaes, a movie, and (Kitty blushed happily at the thought) there would probably be kissing involved. 

But there was clearly an awkwardness between them now. Anna was clearly repressing all of her feelings and worrying about Katherine, and Katherine was dealing with her feelings and worrying about Anna. She was spending all of her energy trying to get Anna to open up, and as a result, was feeling more on edge than usual herself. She desperately didn't want to have a panic attack, wanted to prove to her girlfriend, to _everyone_ , that she wasn't the same person she'd been when they came back.

She may never be the queen that kicked ass, and she knew that, but _God_ , sometimes they all treated her like she was a complete idiot.Like she couldn't take care of herself at all. She really wanted to be grateful for all the others had done for her, and she really was, but it often felt like they saw her as something they needed to manage and monitor instead of as a person. Katherine sighed as she went back to the television room. This was going to be a long night.

_7PM on Friday: Anna_

Anna made sure to take stock of her girlfriend's body language as she re-entered the television room. She knew that she was being overbearing, and that Katherine was a bit annoyed with her, but she also wanted to put her girlfriend's safety above all else. She would swear by that until the day she died, and she knew Katherine would say the same if the roles were reversed. 

But had it really been the right move? Anna thought about Katherine's words to her from only hours ago, words about Anna's emotions, and not her own. 

"I'm not going to let you repress forever and pretend you don't deserve to feel pain!"

Was she repressing? Anna didn't feel any different. She felt a little guilty about letting drunk Anne trap her in the closet, but she'd gotten over it.

At the moment, Katherine seemed all right, but Anna knew that that could change at any second. She quickly turned back to the television and pretended she hadn't been staring. It was the best she could do.

"You're not going to be able to stop it, you know."

Anna looked at Kat in surprise. Out of all the words she'd expected to come out of the fifth queen's mouth, these were pretty much the last ones she'd been expecting.

"What do you mean, liebling?"

"I mean it's really sweet of you to worry about me, but if I'm going to have a panic attack, you're not going to be able to stop it. The best you can do is help me if it comes. I've thought about what to do if that happens, and I'm okay with it. You can do that, too, but there's nothing you can change right now. We have this place to ourselves for who knows how long, and I want to be able to have fun with you while I do." Katherine got down on her knees, giggling, as though they were doing a dramatic scene in a movie. "Will you help me with that?"

Anna laughed at her girlfriend's pleading face. Privately, she knew she wouldn't stop worrying, but she could at least put on a happy face and give Kitty some fun. 

"I would love to."

Katherine bounced up and down on the couch. "Great! I got out the popcorn and the ice cream, I rented all 7 seasons of _Gilmore Girls_ , and I took off my pink lip gloss."

Anna smirked. "Mein Schatz, why on Earth would you need to do that?"

Katherine's eyes twinkled mischievously. "So there won't be too much evidence, of course."

_11PM on Friday: Katherine_

They fell asleep on the couch. Of course they had. After all their fun, the fourth and fifth queens had been exhausted. Neither of them had meant to fall asleep, it had just...happened. But Katherine was more than content to wake up and find herself in the warm embrace of Anna's arms. That is, until she heard a crash from the living room. Quickly and quietly, the pink haired queen tiptoed off the couch and peeked around the doorway.

She felt her blood run cold. She couldn't see anything, but she heard voices.

"If everything goes according to plan, we should be out of here in 20 minutes."

"I'm so full of adrenaline right now, I can't believe it. After so many months, we can finally give these nightmares what they deserve."

"After the last time, they deserve it even more."

As the voices got closer, Kat swung around and hid behind the doorframe, panting.

Executioners. That was what the queens had dubbed this group of people. The people who thought they were wrong for coming back, people who saw them as inhuman, who relished in their pain. They'd met quite a few of them before on numerous occasions, but they'd never been into the apartment. Katherine shuddered at the memory of one of her worse experiences with them. She'd come very close to a second beheading. 

As quickly and quietly as she could, Katherine ran back over to the couch and started nudging her girlfriend as sharply as possible without being mean.

"Anna! Wake up!"

"What is it?"

"There are executioners in the apartment!" 

Anna sat bolt upright on the couch and instantly grabbed the nearest makeshift weapon, which happened to be the television remote. "It's alright, liebling, I can take 'em!" 

"Oh, so you're the only one?"

"How about neither of you?" The queens whirled around to find the two men blocking the doorway, one holding a rope, the other, an axe. At the sight of the axe, Katherine felt her chest tighten and her breaths grow shorter.

But there were only two men between her and survival. There was only one thing she could do, as scared as she was. 

Katherine grabbed the popcorn bowl and ran, as fast as she could, at the man with the rope.

_11:10PM on Friday: Anna_

The man with the axe ran directly at the German queen, but she was ready. She ducked left, and hit him with the television remote. It did nothing, but it gave her a few seconds to take a look over at Katherine. Her girlfriend was extra prone to panic attacks when she was feeling guilty, and the axe certainly couldn't help. 

The man swung his axe at Anna. She ducked, and his axe hit the wall. She swung her body to the right, and the man followed, but this time, she was ready. She grabbed the axe handle, and...

Wait, what was Anne doing there? 

The ghostly form of a clearly drunk Anne Boleyn stood in front of her. Anna stared at her, amazed. 

"You failed me," said Anne. "You had to keep me safe, and you didn't."

Anna was vaguely aware of her own body trembling and falling to the floor. What had felt like nothing only minutes before was now overwhelming guilt and fear, crushing her under its weight, sending her spiraling down a deep pit with nowhere else to go. Was this a panic attack?

Under any other circumstance, Anna would've put these feelings aside for later, but she couldn't. The feelings were everywhere around her, consuming her brain, taking her over, and unlike some of the other queens, Anna had no idea how to handle a panic attack.

She felt the guilt take her over completely, and despite every sane thought she'd ever have, she was grateful for the reprieve when something heavy hit her over the head and her world went dark. 

_12AM on Saturday: Katherine_

Katherine Howard stared at the mess of her apartment. Once again, she wanted to kick herself

The executioner with the rope had backed her into the living room, where she'd grabbed a heavy vase and managed to hold him off. But by the time she'd finished fighting, the other executioner had gone, and he'd taken Anna with him.

Guilt. Such a familiar emotion to the youngest queen. Katherine didn't want to think about what these horrible people would do to her girlfriend, but she absolutely refused to let the guilt consume her. Because unlike the last time she'd felt guilt, this time, there was something she could do.

She was going to find her girlfriend, no matter how terrified she was. And she was going to bring her home. 


	2. How do I Save You if I Can't Save Myself?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After an unexpected fight with an even more unexpected outcome, Anna and Katherine find themselves in positions they never expected to be in, and their usual roles are reversed with higher stakes than ever.

_ 8AM on Saturday: Anna _

Anna felt herself drifting out of unconsciousness, and took stock of the space around her as best as she could. The room she was in was pitch black, the floor was hard, and for some reason, both her hands and feet were bound. Despite her pounding headache, she tried as best as she could to remember what had happened the night before. 

It all came rushing back to her in one spell. The executioners. The panic attack. The very hard object that had hit her on the head. Anna groaned. Though she was no longer in the middle of a panic attack, she could tell that her mind was in a fragile state, and it wouldn’t take much to push her over the edge a second time. And, unfortunately, the executioners probably knew that, too. Not only that, there was the matter of having no idea where she was, and no one else having any idea where she was.

So yeah, this was definitely not the ideal situation to be in. 

Anna tried as best as she could to sit up, but her body was weaker than usual after last night, and without her arms or legs to help her, she found herself on the floor again. She very much wanted to kick herself.

Anna had  _ never  _ had a panic attack until last night. She’d had a few emotional outbursts when no one was watching, but never anything like  _ that.  _ She’d known she’d been guilty, but she’d never have been able to guess there was enough emotion to leave her shaking on the floor. 

She knew it was partially her fault, she should’ve learned how to properly deal with emotions sooner instead of hiding them from herself and everyone else. She probably should’ve listened to Katherine about repressing, but she hadn’t even known she was doing it! It was only because she knew the other queens had so much more to deal with than she did, and though she certainly had the right to have emotions, in her mind, they were less...justified. She supposed these were the consequences for acting on those (she supposed Katherine would call them “toxic”) thoughts constantly.

Although to be fair, it was just plain bad luck that she’d had her  _ actual  _ panic attack when the executioners showed up. 

But this was no time to scold herself for handling her emotions the wrong way. That could be done later. For now, she had to focus on getting out. She tried spinning herself around to find the perimeter of the room, but she ended up with absolutely no idea of anything. She knew some of the other queens who had experience being locked up would be able to find all the dimensions of the room, as well as where the door was, but of course, they weren’t there. Anna had felt survivor’s guilt many times in this life, but never had she felt ungrateful for the life she’d had. Now, though, she found herself wishing she’d picked up  _ some  _ skills in her last life other than political survival instincts. 

Sighing, the German queen slumped against the wall. She knew the executioners would give her pain, make her have the worst day of her life. She knew she’d never recover from whatever they were about to do to her. The other queens certainly hadn’t. 

As much as she hated to admit it, there was nothing she could do other than survive for as long as she could. She would be destroyed in some form eventually. It was only a matter of time. 

_ 8AM on Saturday: Katherine  _

After many meaningless hours of pretending she was trying to sleep but actually just tossing and turning and worrying about Anna, Katherine Howard found herself awake much earlier than usual with a cup of coffee in hand. 

She knew sitting and doing nothing was  _ not  _ going to save her girlfriend, but she also needed a moment to collect herself. She needed complete control of her emotions if she wanted to do this right, and for Katherine, complete control of her emotions was a very rare thing. 

She sighed as she watched the sun rise over the city. There was a storm moving in from the west, she could see the clouds all the way from her window. She’d tried to call the other queens a million times, but no one picked up their phone. She knew she was stalling, but there wasn’t much she could do about it. 

It wasn’t that she didn’t want to save her girlfriend, of  _ course  _ she did. She just didn’t think she could. Katherine had always been the weak queen, the babey, the one who couldn’t take care of herself, who needed protection. She’d been wanting to abandon that persona for ages, but she hadn’t expected it to be like this.

If no one else trusted her to be the strong one, how could she trust herself to do so? How could she save someone she loved so much if no one even thought she could save herself?

_ Toxic thoughts,  _ she told herself, just as she had on Thursday night. It was less than 36 hours earlier, but it already felt like so long ago. So much had happened since then. And though she was thinking the same thoughts she’d thought then, they had so much more meaning than before. It wasn’t just about her and the possibility of a panic attack. She had someone’s  _ life  _ in her hands. The life of the woman she loved more than anything in the world. 

What on Earth was she  _ doing  _ sitting around? She knew she was unreliable, fragile, and not a fighter. But that had never stopped her before. Her girlfriend was in  _ danger _ . She could  _ die _ if Katherine didn’t do something. If the roles were reversed, Anna would be halfway across town already. 

Katherine knew she could never be like Anna. Anna was brave, and loyal, and she would never sit in an apartment wondering if she could do anything. But, thought Katherine as she stood up and packed a backpack, Anna wasn’t there. She was. And though there was a huge possibility she’d end up in a worse position than before, Katherine was going to do what she did best. She was going to give herself to the cause, just as she’d done for her family hundreds of years ago.

That hadn’t ended very well, but this time, there was one significant difference. This time, she was fighting for something,  _ someone,  _ that she believed in. That, she thought as she closed the apartment door behind her, might change everything. 

Katherine Howard wasn’t a hero. She knew she couldn’t be one, she wasn’t the right kind of person to do that. But for once, she didn’t care. For once, her mind was clear. For once, she was trying not to worry about all that could go wrong. Because for once, though she wasn’t a hero, she was Anna’s only chance at life. And she loved Anna far too much to take that chance away from her. 

_ 1PM on Saturday: Anna _

Anna had been hoping her headache would get better, but it only got worse. The more she sat in the dark cell, the less sure she felt that she would be able to survive. The executioners were cruel people, and she...well, she knew she wasn’t in a state to survive a morning run, let alone the things she’d seen them do.

As if conjured by Anna’s thoughts, the door to the cell opened. Dim light streamed in, making Anna squint as her eyes adjusted from the darkness. The same two men that had been in the apartment stood before her, still holding their rope and axe. In addition, a third person, a woman, stood behind them. She, too was holding a rope, but this rope somehow looked much more like a whip than the other rope. To her dismay, Anna felt her body shrink up against the wall. She still didn’t have complete control over what she did.

The woman, who, Anna realized, looked almost exactly like a snake, walked into the cell, black heels clicking on the floor menacingly. Determined not to break again, Anna stared right back into the woman’s eyes. The woman didn’t like that. Anna felt the whip hit her in the back, and she did her best not to let her eyes water with the pain, but she couldn’t stop herself from letting out a grunt, which the woman heard, smiling. 

“Bring her to the silver room,” said the woman. “I have a few questions for our guest.”

It was all Anna could do not to scream as the men dragged her down a hall and into another room, much bigger than the cell, and, true to its name, silver in every aspect from the ceiling to the floor. She knew screaming would do no good, but true fear, fear for her own life, was an alien emotion to her.

Would that be her downfall here?

She was vaguely aware of her legs and arms being rebound to a chair that was bolted to the floor. She was vaguely aware of the pain in her shoulders from her arms being pulled too tight. But she didn’t care. She was too busy focusing on how to survive.

The woman in black stood above her, whip in hand. The other two men had left the room, but this woman alone was somehow a thousand times more intimidating than both of them. 

“Well,” she said. “To be honest, I didn’t expect the two of them to catch anything. They’re pretty useless. But they said something about you falling on the floor. Must have been the easiest time they ever had with all of you.”

Anna said nothing. She knew begging, pleading, and even fighting back, would get her nowhere. She wasn’t strong enough to fight back today. So she said nothing. The woman smiled down at her.

“So, since it’s pretty clear to me that you don’t know how to fight real panic attacks, I thought we’d try to find some different things and see what triggers you. Sound fun?”

Anna’s blood ran cold. The woman may have had a smile on her face, but the real meaning of her words was clear as day.  _ Torture.  _

No matter how hard she tried, Anna couldn’t stop her heart from beating faster. Until last night, she would’ve trusted herself to survive forever. But last night, she’d broken down at the worst possible moment. And she knew she was dangerously close to breaking again. The kind of torture they did...it could damage her mind forever in this state. But that didn’t mean she wouldn’t fight for survival as hard as she possibly could. The woman pulled out a long knife. “Don’t worry, liebling,” she said with a cold smile. “This is going to be a lot of fun.”

_ 2PM on Saturday: Katherine _

Of all of the places Katherine had ever expected to find herself on a stormy Saturday afternoon, this was pretty much the last one she’d ever expected. She stared at the shiny guns lining the walls of the shop. They all looked the same to her, and, truth be told, a little scary. But if she was planning a rescue mission, a gun was a good thing to have.

After twenty minutes of staring uselessly at the wall, she finally gave in and asked an employee for help. The employee, no doubt noticing her incredibly confused expression, quickly led her to the smallest handheld gun on the wall. Surprisingly, it fit right into Katherine’s hand. But when she reached the store counter, she ran into a problem. 

“I’m sorry, but we can’t sell you a gun if you don’t have a firearms certificate.”

“I promise it’s a very special circumstance.”

“I’m sorry, love, but literally everyone says that.”

Katherine took a deep breath. It was going to be a long day. “Well, how do I get a firearms certificate, then?”

So, the salesperson kindly redirected Katherine to the police station. Which put her in a very awkward position. The queens had learned a few months ago that the executioners had deep connections with the police, and that the police were not to be trusted in any department regarding them. But she also knew that she couldn’t go after Anna without some sort of weapon, and she doubted a vase would do if the was faced with more than one opponent. She also did not trust herself to hold a sharp blade.

She was teetering on the edge of a huge wave of panic, she knew, but she couldn’t afford to do anything that might make her break down. The best thing to do was ride the panic out as best as she could. She knew her determination to save Anna was enough to get her through this. 

That didn’t mean she trusted herself with a knife.

On the other hand, she wasn’t exactly on good terms with the police. It was likely that getting a certificate from them would take days at the least. Anna barely had hours, if even that.

Katherine definitely had a decision to make. 

Or was there another way. 

Ten minutes later, she was leaving the police station without a certificate, but she had a plan. It was a crazy plan, but it was so crazy it just might work. She headed for the party store and the music store, full of newfound confidence she’d never known she had. 

There was a very large chance she’d be dead before the sun rose on Sunday morning. But if that was the case, she was going to make sure her girlfriend became a survivor. No matter what, she wasn’t going to fail. She refused to.

This was Katherine Howard’s first chance to be her own person, to not be the helpless one, the damsel in distress. She wished it hadn’t come about this way, but it had, and there was no turning back now.

She was going to do this. But if she wanted to succeed, she was going to do it her way. 

_ 5PM on Saturday: Anna _

Movement seemed like a faraway dream from long ago. Anna had been trying her absolute best to move, to fight back, for...well, she didn’t know how long, but it felt like years. 

No matter how hard she tried, the pain was just too much. Cuts from the woman in black’s knife covered her entire body, each precise and tiny so that it covered the floor in sticky red blood, but not big enough to damage her body in any significant way. So that she knew that there could always be more blood, that there would never be an end. Until she lost her mind, her body gave out, or both.

The woman in black approached again, this time holding a smaller knife, so small you could barely see it unless you looked closely. To her dismay, Anna felt her body attempt to curl up in self defense, something she’d sworn to herself at the beginning of all this that she would never do. But of course she couldn’t, because she was tied to the chair.

She was rapidly losing her sense of reality. Normally, her mind wouldn’t have deteriorated this fast, but they’d taken her at the worst possible moment. Her mind was on the edge of falling and shattering. They hadn’t found the right trigger yet, but it was only a matter of time until they did, and every attempt only pushed her closer to the end of sanity.

The woman in black leaned in, and, so quickly she could barely see it, made two slashes on either side of Anna’s face, leaving blood dripping down her cheeks.

“Now you’ll have scars forever. You think you aren’t beautiful now? Watch what people think of you when they see this.” Anna winced. This wasn’t the right trigger, but it was certainly closer, and to her surprise, she felt tears streaming down her own face. 

No. This was  _ not  _ going to happen. She may be emotionally fragile, about to either die or go insane, and covered in her own blood, but Anna of Cleves was a survivor. If she was going to go out, she was going to go out fighting. And she was going to make sure the woman in black remembered her for a very, very long time.    
With all of her strength, Anna tried her best to do the thing they did in movies. She threw herself backwards as hard as she could, and ended up with her back flat on the floor and the wind completely knocked out of her. But the woman in black looked furious standing above her, blood pouring out of her nose. 

Anna grinned from the floor. She suddenly had more energy than she’d felt all day. And she knew she was definitely going to need it. The woman in black had murder in her eyes. She wrenched Anna’s body from the chair and began dragging her down another long hallway. They entered a new room, this one pitch black, no windows, and, Anna realized as they entered through a bizarre maze of mirrors that made her head spin, no doors. 

She felt proud and grateful for the extra energy she’d gained, but she’d also upped the stakes for herself. The new energy was a flimsy cover for her currently  _ very  _ breakable mind, and it would only last her so long. 

There was nothing she could do now except pray that somehow, someone would find her before it was too late. It was a stupid hope, she knew, but she knew she’d need that hope when things got worse.

Time was running out. 

_ 7PM on Saturday: Katherine _

Katherine as once again standing where she never thought she’d stand; on the rooftop of a tall building, staring out at the darkening city. She’d spent the last four hours searching the entire city, building by building, rooftop by rooftop, and going over her plan over and over in her head. It was a stupid and crazy plan, and the more she thought about it, the more doubts crept into her mind. 

_ You can’t do this.  _

_ You’re weak. _

_ You’ve always been the victim. _

_ A baby.  _

_ Just a burden on the rest of the queens. _

_ They’ve saved you dozens of times. _

_ It was your fault that you needed saving in the first place. _

_ You can’t save someone else. _

_ Anna is going to die because you’re just so utterly USELESS.  _

_ Toxic thoughts,  _ she told herself for the third time since this had all started. To think that it had all been because of Anne’s car accident. To think that her and Anna’s guilt over that had consumed an entire day. It could have been part of the reason the executioners had had such an easy time with them. Guilt over something so far out of their control seemed like something so small compared to what they were dealing with now.

_ Kidnapping. _

_ Torture. _

_ Murder. _

_ All things too big for you. _

Katherine felt tears sliding down her cheeks. All the bravery she’d gained and lost and gained back over and over again was leaving her and being overcome by doubt. She sighed. She’d been fighting this fight inside herself all day, and this was the last time she was going to fight it. She knew where she wanted to come out at the end of it, she just needed to get herself there. 

She closed her eyes, and breathed.

_ Two figures stood in front of her: Anne Boleyn and Thomas Culpeper. He had murder in his eyes, and he was staring straight at the youngest queen’s cousin. Anne was oblivious and looking in the other direction, and so she had no time to scream before his hands closed around her throat.  _

_ Katherine had no time to think before she was already moving, hands sweeping out to either side of her in a technique she’d learned long ago as a way of avoiding Thomas Culpeper the last time. Before she knew it, he was on the ground, and Anne was staring at her, shocked.  _

Katherine opened her eyes again. She wasn’t sure how long they’d been closed, or how she’d managed to bring that scene before her eyes. But she knew what it had done for her.

She’d done it. She’d saved someone. And if she could do it once, she could do it again. 

She looked out over the brightly lit city. The sky was now pitch black, all remanents of daytime gone, but the blackness that would normally terrify Katherine had no effect on her. 

Katherine set out over the rooftops once more, paralyzing fear gone from her body for the last time. She’d never thought she’d find herself leaping over the rooftops of buildings, but here she was.

She’d never thought she’d end up saving the love of her life, but here she was. 

_ 10PM on Saturday: Anna _

_ Anna of Cleves was dying. She was lying in her bed, and for the first time in her life since her childhood, she was powerless. The cancer was eating her body whole from the inside out, and for the first time in her life, she thought only of her regrets. _

_ She’d be seen forever as a laughingstock, the worst disgrace Germany had ever seen. She’d disappointed her family, her country, and even another whole nation. And she still barely understood why. _

_ Her only true friend, the person she’d loved the most, was dead because Anna hadn’t done anything to save her. She’d been thrust into a world far too big for someone her age, and it was Anna’s fault.  _

_ She remembered standing outside a tower for an entire night, powerless to stop what was coming, at a loss for words. She remembered trying everything she possibly could, and failing, every time. _

_ She remembered the overwhelming guilt she’d felt every time she’d visited the king. _

_ She could remember more, but the pain was consuming her, fast. She only had hours to live. She felt the weakest she’d ever felt. She hated it more than anything. But above all else, it completely terrified her.  _

_ The pain wouldn’t go away. It had come out of nowhere, and suddenly, it was everywhere. _

Anna woke up in pitch black darkness, her entire body bound so she couldn’t move an inch. From out of the blackness came the familiar voice of the woman in black. 

“Well, well, well. Looks like dreams are the tell of your trigger after all.”

Anna tried to speak, but found only a croak come out of her throat. She spoke anyway. It would help her regain her illusions of power. “What do you mean?”

“You were clutching your stomach in your sleep. We did a little research, and we found out you died of cancer. Stomach cancer. Well, little miss liebling, I’m holding a bottle in my hand. I have a syringe in the other. It’ll be very easy to inject these into your stomach. Now how would you like that?”

Anna couldn’t help herself. Her body thrashed, the cuts all over her throbbing. She twitched harder and harder. She could not let them give her cancer again. She could feel her brain spiraling into complete panic again, and this time, she wasn’t sure if it would ever come back.

“Stick it in.”

The tip of the syringe touched her stomach, and she screamed. She screamed loud and long until no more sound came out of her throat. It was a last desperate hope before her mind was completely gone, a crazy attempt to get someone, somewhere, to hear.

She desperately didn’t want to die like this. She didn’t want to go insane.

But at this point, what choice did she have? 

_ 10PM on Saturday: Katherine _

Katherine was full of adrenaline as she raced through the halls of the pitch black skyscraper. After hours of searching, running until her legs felt like they were about to fall off, and then running some more, she’d finally spotted one of the men from the apartment walking into a tall building she’d never noticed before. 

So she’d climbed into the second floor window and began scaling the many flights of stairs. She felt like a shadow, climbing through the blackness, hiding whenever a person passed by. She’d always welcomed shadows as a child, because they’d represented safety, a place to hide. Now, she’d become a shadow, and she was someone else’s safety. She could only hope that it was going to be safe enough. 

As she reached the top floor, she exited the stairs and began running down the hallway, peeking into every room as she went. It looked so much like an evil science lab from the films that it gave her chills. 

Under any other circumstance, she would’ve questioned why she was here, but she was beyond questions for now.

As she rounded the corner and ducked into the shadows once more, she heard a sudden scream. It was long and loud, and brimming with fear, pain, and anguish that could only be brought out when humans did the worst possible things they could do. There was only one person in this building who could be screaming like that.

In the moment, Katherine was surprised to find she didn’t even think twice. She ran towards the scream. She kicked open the door. And she pointed the gun. 

_ 11PM on Saturday: Anna _

“Let her go!” Katherine’s hands shook as she pointed the gun. Her eyes were full of a fiery determination no one had seen in her before.

It was...terrifying.

The men stared at Katherine, as shocked as anyone could be. They hadn’t seen this coming, either.

Anna couldn’t believe her girlfriend had gone this far.

She hadn’t expected to be found. She hadn’t expected to be heard. And yet here Katherine was, standing in front of the mirror maze with the light reflecting off her back, making her look like an angel. 

Despite standing on the edge of sanity and shaking with fear, Anna couldn’t help but laugh with joy.

She saw Katherine’s face light up at the sound of her laughter, just for one second. But as the men moved towards her, she raised the gun and pointed it at the woman’s face. She didn’t shoot. But as they got within a foot of her, she moved in what seemed to be one fluid motion. Anna couldn’t see what happened through the blackness, but she saw the men lying on the floor.

The woman in black moved faster and held the syringe up to Anna’s throat.

“One more step and she dies.”

She saw Katherine freeze for half a second, and during that half second, she began to tremble. She felt her stomach twitch at the memories of extreme pain from 500 years ago. She felt her mind tremble on the edge of sanity once more.

And then Katherine stood up to her full height and stared the woman in black right in the eyes. She pulled out a violin bow, yet in her hands, it looked like a sword.

“I don’t know who you are, ma’am, but I know you know who I am. I know you know everything I’ve been through, and I know you probably planned to use it against me at some point. But I also know you know that I’m still standing. I may not look like it, but I’m a survivor. I’m stronger than you could ever be. And that’s my girlfriend you’re threatening with death and torture, so I’d suggest you move.”

And then, in one fluid motion, the same way she’d taken out the men, Katherine Howard, victim and damsel in distress, played the role of the hero. Within seconds, the woman in black was lying on the floor, syringe pointed directly up at Katherine, inches away from stabbing her. Katherine stood in front of Anna, trembling from head to toe.

“That was a trick I learned running away from Henry Mannox.”

In one last blur, Anna found herself on the floor, black clouding the edges of her vision already. But she knew she wasn’t going anywhere. Arms wrapped around her, warm and familiar and safe. 

Arms of a person who’d just done something no one had ever expected her to do.

Katherine Howard wrapped her arms around the woman she loved more than she’d ever loved anything else. And just like she’d promised 24 hours ago, she was bringing her girlfriend home. 

  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> See, loves? Everything turned out fine:)

**Author's Note:**

> Haha! I bet you weren't expecting THAT!  
> Don't worry everyone! There will be a part two of this! I won't leave Anna in the hands of kidnappers forever! I could never do that, I love her too much:)


End file.
